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Monday newspaper round-up: Trade wars, Italy, Brexit, water companies

Germany accused President Trump last night of destroying Europe’s trust and threatened to retaliate against new trade tariffs as the row over the weekend’s disastrous G7 summit in Quebec escalated. In a combative appearance on German TV, Angela Merkel said that the EU was ready to take on the US in a trade war, and described Mr Trump’s behaviour in the aftermath of the G7 meeting as “sobering and a bit depressing”. - The Times

Donald Trump tore up a G7 agreement and lashed out at his allies as part of a demonstration of strength as he flew into Singapore ahead of Tuesday's crunch talks with Kim Jong-un, according to a senior White House adviser. The president's blistering attack on his Canadian counterpart - which he continued on Monday in Asia - was part of a ploy to offer no hint of weakness as he prepares for high stakes nuclear diplomacy, said Larry Kudlow, chief economic adviser to the president, on Sunday. - Telegraph

President Trump has boasted that the United States will win a trade war “a thousand times” over if the European Union decides next month, as expected, to introduce retaliatory measures against his metals tariffs. Mr Trump has pointed out that the large trade surpluses in goods run with the US by countries such as Germany gives him leverage in a trade war, especially given the deep political divisions in Europe. - The Times

Senior government figures are confident of winning a series of crucial House of Commons votes on the Brexit bill, despite threats of a revolt by pro-remain MPs. Ministers and aides indicated that they remain “quietly reassured” that they have the numbers to pass the EU withdrawal bill when it returns to the lower chamber on Tuesday. - Guardian

Italy has no intention of abandoning the euro, the country’s new economy minister said, despite both parties in the coalition having toyed with the idea. “The position of the government is clear and unanimous,” Giovanni Tria told Corriere della Sera newspaper in his first interview since the government was formed a week ago. “There is no question of leaving the euro.” - Telegraph

Britain has retained its place as the top European destination for foreign investment, but its lead over France and Germany has narrowed. The UK attracted 18 per cent of all foreign direct investment into Europe last year, the second straight year of decline for Britain’s share, with investors citing Brexit and transport infrastructure as issues. - The Times

The world economy will be hard hit by the next financial crisis because it has failed to adopt much needed reforms, Gordon Brown, the former prime minister and chancellor, has warned. The entire global financial system was in need of “fundamental reform”, Mr Brown said. Such changes ought to have been put in place as matter of urgency but successive governments had not made them a priority. - Telegraph

Arron Banks briefed the CIA’s London bureau on his dealings with the Russian ambassador, he is set to claim to a Commons committee tomorrow. Links between the multimillionaire founder of Leave.EU, his business associate Andy Wigmore and the Kremlin were revealed yesterday after a cache of emails was handed to The Sunday Times. - The Times

Rolls-Royce is expected to cut thousands of jobs this week as chief executive Warren East details how the engineering giant’s latest restructuring will work. Up to 10pc of the FTSE 100 company’s staff could go in plans Mr East will outline at a capital markets day on Friday, this is equal to 4,000 jobs. - Telegraph

Smaller companies developing technologies deemed vital to national security will be protected from being bought by overseas bidders under rules that come into force today. Previously, a business had to have a turnover of at least £70 million to come under the protection of national security rules, but this has been cut to £1 million. The government will no longer have to prove that a tie-up would increase the combined companies’ “share of supply of relevant goods”. - The Times

Labour has insisted it is not toning down its water industry nationalisation plans despite claims from a Pennon director that a mutualisation-style approach has been discussed with opposition leaders. Labour has made forceful public statements on renationalising water – along with energy and rail – in recent months but a FTSE 250-listed utility claims the party is looking at alternative means of gaining control over the industry. - Guardian

The government’s right-to-buy scheme risks running out of homes unless councils are given funding to build more, a report has warned. Research by the Local Government Association found local authorities only have enough money to replace less than one-third of the number of homes sold over the past six years. - Guardian

Building more onshore wind farms could save consumers £1.6 billion on their energy bills, the industry claims in a new study. Cost reductions mean that new projects could offer electricity more cheaply than the market price, the analysis suggests. - The Times

A gas-fired power plant in Scotland may be able to generate ultra-low carbon power at a cheaper cost than ­nuclear, according to its developers. The engineers behind the Caledonia Clean Energy Project (CCEP) claim a scheme to strip the carbon emissions from the flue of a gas-fired power plant could be developed through a Government contract worth between £80 and £90 a megawatt hour. - Telegraph

The European boss of the world’s second-largest fund company has said the industry price war the low-cost fund giant started in the UK last year is here to stay. Vanguard, one of America’s biggest investment houses, shook up the funds industry last May when it launched a website that ­removed the need for a middleman and offered charges which undercut many of its rivals. - Telegraph

Britain’s biggest manager of people’s savings and investments has taken action against companies worldwide that it believes are not fighting climate change, in one of the most interventionist policies by an investment house. The fund management division of Legal & General has sold shares in eight companies in sectors from energy to food and will vote against the re-election of their chairmen or women. - The Times

Social media companies such as Facebook face a controversial EU privacy crackdown that would prevent them from reading private messages sent between individuals. The so-called “ePrivacy” regulations, currently being debated in Brussels, are designed to hand citizens extra privacy protections against internet companies. - Telegraph

The cable operator Virgin Media has launched a landmark legal action against Durham County Council over claims it is obstructing efforts to bring ultrafast broadband to thousands of homes. It has instigated proceedings to force the council to allow it to lay new fibre-optic cables along grass verges without paying “hefty” fees per metre. - Telegraph

Sir Martin Sorrell has “strenuously” denied paying for a sex worker using funds from WPP, the company he founded and developed into the world’s largest advertising group. The remarks follow a report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, which claimed one of the matters the investigation into Sorrell had examined was whether he had used company money for a sex worker. The findings of the investigation have never been made public. - Guardian

Passengers whose trains were delayed or cancelled because of chaos on the railways in the past month have been denied compensation because they have made too many claims. Passengers in the north and southeast of England have been hardest hit by timetable changes, with operators cancelling trains to allow drivers to learn new routes. - The Times

The government has been accused of mishandling its flagship industrial policy as Brexit dominates the agenda in Whitehall, with business leaders warning that the strategy is not receiving enough attention. The business lobby has joined Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs in condemning delays that mean ministers have yet to appoint a watchdog to oversee the industrial strategy or give details of the funds available to promote vital industries. - Guardian

The General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect last month, may cause businesses to pay cyber ransom demands from criminals as they could be a cheaper option than high GDPR fines. George Kurtz, chief executive of ­cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, said that “the price of admission of ransomware just went up” after the introduction of GDPR. - Telegraph

The chairman of Stobart Group resisted fresh calls for him to resign yesterday as a boardroom row at the aviation and energy conglomerate escalated still further. Iain Ferguson, who is involved in a battle with Andrew Tinkler, the former chief executive, received backing from the company after Mr Tinkler claimed that more than 20 of the group’s senior managers wanted Mr Ferguson to quit. - The Times

Roman Deniskin, the recently appointed chief executive of embattled miner Petropavlovsk, has appealed for workers and shareholders to give him a chance ahead of a crucial vote on the company’s future. Mr Deniskin, who joined the gold miner on April 16, rebutted questions over his track record, telling The Daily Telegraph: “I’ve spent two decades in mining. I have the experience and expertise to manage the company.” - Telegraph

TSB has come under further pressure over the information it provided to parliament about its recent computer meltdown following the disclosure of a technical report into the IT crisis at the embattled bank. The leak comes after MPs on the Treasury committee were told by the Financial Conduct Authority, the City watchdog, that the TSB chief executive, Paul Pester, may have been aware that more wide-ranging problems had caused the computer collapse at the bank. - Guardian

Paris’s first two ‘coffee shops’ selling legal cannabis have attracted long queues of customers eager to try a low-strength version of the drug now permitted under French law. The shops opened last week following a softening of restrictions to allow the sale of cannabis containing less than 0.2 per cent of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive ingredient. - Telegraph